Membership

~ Mentorship Program Details ~

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Members submit their work by uploading images to our private forum. Our instructors respond with detailed written feedback, including diagrammed overlays on top of the artwork whenever needed. Each member receives plenty of support and encouragement as they work through this challenging program.

Our teaching style is positive, precise, and encouraging. We are committed to helping our members reach their highest artistic goals through our personal mentoring. We believe in meeting each artist where they are at, and we always go above and beyond in offering detailed, specific, and constructive feedback at every stage of every project. Our feedback addresses all aspects of artmaking, from holding your pencil to developing your artistic vision.
 

Instructors
Each member of our Feedback Program works with one instructor who is dedicated to their development as they work through our courses. All our instructors have been personally trained by Sadie and have several years experience teaching alongside her in the studio, in addition to teaching her program online. They were selected to teach based on their high level of personal artistic achievements, their ability to clearly verbalize technique, and for their ability to teach with emotional intelligence. Sadie supervises all instruction and occasionally adds her comments to student work. Sadie is available by email if a member has a question or concern they would like to discuss in confidence.

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Sadie personally gives feedback in her Portfolio Development program, where she coaches and supports members as they develop a series of artworks for application to galleries, contests, art education programs, or simply for their own personal artistic development.

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Flexible  Schedule
Members work at their own pace and on their own schedule. There is no requirement to upload work. 

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Feedback Program

All our Feedback members start with Intro to Classical Drawing, which prepares artists of all levels for starting their first Bargue plate and cast drawing. The greatest painters of art history, from Michelangelo through Sargent, considered classical drawing to be the foundation of their training.​ Artists who devote six months exclusively to the drawing courses find that when they return to painting their painting abilities have advanced significantly, far more so than if they had devoted that time to painting alone.

Portfolio Development Program

Students who feel ready to work on a series of personal artworks, either paintings or drawings, in their own style or in pursuit of developing their own style, can join Sadie's Portfolio Development program to work with her directly. In this program Sadie supports artists with encouragement and gentle accountability as they set a goal and create a series of 10-20 artworks that hold together in subject, quality, and style. Sadie shares what she has learned through her own artistic development from blocked and frustrated former art student to full time professional artist, to help other artists work through their blocks or plateaus, or simply choose a path and stay on it.

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Pausing and Resuming
It's easy to self-administrate your membership from the Account page. Pausing and resuming can be helpful if you need to take a break for a few weeks. However, we don't advise pausing and resuming frequently, since your artistic development will plateau without consistent weekly practice throughout most weeks of the year. Also, the full membership fee is charged immediately upon renewal, so it's not advisable to pause and renew your account within the billing cycle.

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Length of Study
Students and artists of all levels see dramatic improvement within the first two months of study due to the rigorous and precise nature of this classical program, but many students continue in our program for several years. For those who can devote 10-20 hours per week year-round, the drawing program alone can easily fuel two full years of weekly study, and the painting program is similar. Just like studying a musical instrument or a foreign language, attaining mastery is a life-long practice. Members who feel ready to create a more personal series of work expressing their own artistic vision can choose to work with Sadie personally in our Portfolio Development program.

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Private Mentorship 
Members of our online atelier post to a private forum. Their posts are visible to instructors and members, and small thumbnails and preview snippets are visible to the public in the in the Forums page activity feed. For those who feel more comfortable with private instruction, Twice-Weekly Feedback members have the option to make their posts visible only to our instructors. Sadie's Portfolio Development program is limited to a very small number of participants who share their work in a private forum, only visible to other portfolio development members. Their posts are not visible in the forums' activity feed.